Aetherium (Omnibus Edition)

by Joseph Robert Lewis

  Aker sauntered up. “Are we ready to go?”

  “We’re just waiting for someone to help us put the launch out.” Kenan glanced around the empty deck.

  “No, the captain said there’s nothing to it.” Shifrah winked at Aker and the two of them deftly unlashed the launch and lowered it into the water. The three of them climbed down into the boat and released the lines, leaving them to bob and wobble in the steamer’s wake. As soon as the water was calm again, Kenan and Aker put out the oars and began to row.

  Shifrah watched their steamer cruise into the harbor and settle beside a long stone pier. Behind them on the point, the bright lights of the enormous lighthouse swept across the sky with ghostly fingers to point at the dark horizons. The steamer docked and a handful of sailors lashed it to the pier.

  As their little launch rounded another pier farther down the harbor side and approached the lower mooring, Shifrah saw at least a dozen men waiting at the foot of the steamer’s pier, and as the lighthouse lamp swung around, the light glinted off the steel weapons in their hands. “Looks like Kenan was right.” She pointed at the dark figures.

  They found an old iron ladder and climbed up to the street, which was dark and deserted. Aker pointed the way and led them down the road at a brisk pace. Shifrah glanced up at the shadowed faces of the towers and temples in the distance. The taste of the salt water mingled with the smells of fish and birds, of fire and spices, of flinty sand and crumbling stone.

  Alexandria. It’s been a long time.

  Chapter 8

  Qhora stood in the darkness, staring out at the starry sky and the lights reflected on the rippling waters of the harbor. She watched Salvator lead his band of cheap muscle down the pier, and she watched them talk to the crew of the steamer, and she watched them come back empty-handed.

  We lost them. Again.

  Mirari laid a gloved hand on Qhora’s shoulder, and the Dona reached up to squeeze her hand for a moment. “Go talk to Salvator for a moment,” Qhora said. “I just need a minute to myself.”

  “Yes, my lady.” The masked woman strode away to intercept the Italian and the two stopped on the dockside to talk.

  Qhora turned and shuffled back into the darkness of the empty warehouse where Salvator had placed a single chair with a few ropes and a rickety little table displaying an assortment of stones, broken glass, and splintered wood. Crude, he had said, but more than adequate to your needs.

  She stood in front of the empty chair, a spectral shape drawn in starlight and shadow. The harpy eagle on her arm squawked and stretched his talons. She reached over to stroke his feathered head.

  We would have put the Aegyptian in this chair, she thought. Tied him down. Tortured him. Bled him. Mutilated him. Listened to him scream. And killed him.

  The cold emptiness in her chest made it hard to breathe and she sat down in the chair. Her lip shook, but she did not blink, did not crumple, and did not wail. She sat tall and proud, staring across the dirty floor of the empty warehouse.

  For vengeance. For justice. For me, and Javier, and all of España.

  She exhaled slowly. Her breasts ached.

  Forgive me, Enzo. You deserve better than this. I tried. I did. But I failed. I failed you. The man in green is gone. And I know you wouldn’t have wanted me to kill him, but you deserve that much, and more. But it doesn’t matter now. He’s gone.

  And we both know that killing him would do nothing for us. It wouldn’t bring you back to me and our son. It wouldn’t even bring me peace, let alone happiness.

  I need to go home. I need Javier, and he needs me. I need to go back to Madrid and tell your students that you are gone, that your school is closed, and that your sword-of-life style exists only in your little book now.

  Where should I go now, Enzo? How will I live? Where will I live? I suppose I can go to your parents in Gadir for a while, but that will not last forever. And what will I do then?

  She reached up with her bare right hand to clutch the old triquetra medallion hanging around her neck. The metal was warm to the touch. Very warm. Qhora closed her eyes and tried to pray to Enzo’s three-faced God. But where was the justice of the Father? Where was the life of the Mother? Where was the mercy of the Son?

  Enzo is gone, without justice, life, or mercy.

  Qhora opened her eyes and saw a figure standing just a few paces away. It was a shadowy, indistinct figure, a little old woman as dim as dark glass and through her body Qhora could still see the door of the warehouse beyond her.

  A ghost.

  “You.” Qhora croaked the word.

  “I’m so sorry, Dona.” The ancient Espani nun looked older than Qhora remembered. She had only seen the specter once in a butcher’s icehouse in Marrakesh. The dead woman had made a stronger impression that day, wreathed in swirling vapors and aether, passing down her wisdom centuries after her death to teach Enzo, to guide him.

  But now she was just a shadow trapped in an old medallion, her soul imprisoned in the little patch of aetherium in the edge of the golden triquetra.

  “I watched it happen,” Sister Ariel said. “I saw the man strike, saw the fiery sword shatter Lorenzo’s espada, and I saw it pierce his flesh. I saw it all. And I felt the aether riptide of that sword trying to tear me free of my prison in exchange for another, but I remained here in the triquetra while poor Lorenzo…” The nun covered her mouth.

  Qhora frowned sternly, struggling not to give in to the misery and horror the old ghost was projecting at her. “What about Lorenzo?”

  “His soul was taken, dragged away, drawn into the aetherium sword.” The nun made the sign of the triquetra and bowed her head. “And I could hear them. So many souls, other souls, older souls, all trapped in that sword with him. I can’t imagine what it must be like. I’ve been alone in this medallion for two years. Two years of quiet, of watching over you and Lorenzo, and little Javier. Alone. But Lorenzo is bound up with so many others. I’ve done nothing but pray for him since that moment.” Sister Ariel buried her shadow face in her shadow hands.

  A cold needle of fear and revelation pierced Qhora’s heart as she leaned forward on the edge of the creaking chair. “What are you saying? That my Enzo’s soul is in that sword now? That he’s in some prison, trapped for all time? In the hands of that death-worshipping filth?”

  The nun nodded. “Yes, I believe so. It’s such a terrible weapon. I’d never imagined such a thing. It kills the flesh, steals the soul, and makes itself and its owner even more deadly in the process.”

  Qhora wanted to leap up and shake the dead woman. “But Enzo! He’s in there? If I get that sword back, will I be able to see him and hear him, just like I can see you right now?”

  Sister Ariel nodded meekly. “I suppose so. Yes. Of course.”

  Qhora balled her hands into fists on her knees to stop them from trembling. Her wild eyes darted around the dark warehouse, her mouth half-open and making silent little words as her mind raced.

  I can get him back. I can get him back!

  She leapt out of the chair and ran straight through the shadowy image of the old nun and out the door. Outside, she dashed to Mirari’s side with her eagle weighing heavier and heavier on her arm and said, “We have to find the Aegyptian. I need his sword!”

  “Of course, my lady.” The masked woman bowed her head.

  “What for?” Salvator asked. “A trophy?”

  Qhora fixed him with an iron stare. “I’m getting my Enzo back.”

  The Italian nodded slightly. “You want his soul, you mean?”

  “Yes.”

  “Ah.” Salvator adjusted his cuffs. “You know, I don’t have a great deal of experience with aetherium swords and such, but I was raised in Italia and I know a thing or two about ghosts and souls. There is a reason we ignore them back home, even those of our own ancestors, our own friends and lovers. And that reason is that everyone who has ever devoted their time to commerce with the dead commits suicide. Everyone. They lose their grasp on the entire purpo
se of being alive. They become fixated on the romance of being dead, of being an immortal shade and wandering the world forever, meeting the souls of those who have gone before.”

  “I have no intention of killing myself to be with my husband,” Qhora said.

  “No. I’m sure you don’t. Now.” Salvator shrugged. “Just keep in mind that ghosts can only roam freely where the aether lies thick, and that is only in the coldest and darkest corners of the world. And even then, only the most holy or most miserable of souls bother to walk the earth. Everyone else stays in the ground, asleep, awaiting the end.”

  “The end of what?”

  Salvator smiled sadly. “The world.”

  Qhora shook her head. “I don’t care about any of that. My Enzo is dead, but his soul is out there, imprisoned in some killer’s sword and if I can’t have my husband alive in my arms, then I will have him dead by my side, but not enslaved by some ugly trash. Never that.”

  The Italian nodded. “Very well. In the morning, we will begin our search anew.”

  “We’ll begin now.” Qhora spun and strode down the street away from the dock, leaving the soft rolling sounds of the water and the sharp salt smells of the sea behind as she clacked and stomped along the ancient stone road.

  Salvator quickened his step to come alongside her. “Do you have a plan? Perhaps your new feathered friend here can sniff out the killer’s scent?”

  “Don’t be stupid. Eagles have no sense of smell.”

  “Oh. Then I fail to see what use he’ll be to us here. You should have kept your daggers.”

  “I traded two stupid daggers for six smart ones.” She indicated the harpy’s talons.

  “And does this set of intelligent knives have a name yet?”

  Qhora frowned. “Turi. His name is Turi.”

  Brother. My little brother, taken from his home and lost in this eastern world, just like me. But free now, like me.

  “I assume he’s trained to attack on command?”

  She smiled briefly. She’d passed the long hours on the flight from Carthage by whispering the old Quechua commands to the eagle, trying to teach him to seek and to strike using gestures. They were the same commands she used with Atoq, and saying them out loud had been a comfort, if only for the familiarity of it. “I believe he’ll listen to me. He’s a fast learner.”

  They crossed an intersection, and then another. The warehouses fell away, leaving small shops and offices in pale clay and stone on every side. Fat candles burned in the occasional streetlamp on the corners, and lumps of dry dung sat in the middle of the road. Locusts creaked and droned in the distance. There were also voices and lights in the distance, but they echoed with laughter and snapped like firecrackers.

  Not a market then. Not at this hour of the night.

  Qhora paused in the middle of the street. There were a few lights in the windows here, and a few men walking swiftly along beside them. The men of Alexandria did glance at the foreigners, but only for the briefest moments.

  “Where to now?” Salvator asked. “I recall a few lovely little hotels back this way near a popular café. They serve coffee there…”

  “A market. No, a smith. A sword smith. Someone here must know about aetherium swords.” Qhora nodded to herself. “We’ll start with the sword makers.”

  Salvator sighed. “As you wish.”

  For the next hour, they strode down one shadowed street after another, asking the rare passerby for directions to a smith, or an armory, or an antiques dealer. But every shop they found was closed for the night. Foot-weary from walking and arm-weary from carrying the huge Turi, Qhora was about to suggest that they retire for the evening when Salvator quickened his step and closed in upon a small café on a quiet street corner. Qhora glanced through the door at the four half-sleeping patrons inside and decided to remain outside with Mirari. The Italian went in.

  Qhora let her tired eyes admire Turi’s gray and white feathers, his long black talons, and his wide golden eyes. He was healthy and strong, and the silhouette of his head reminded her of Wayra, towering Wayra striding across the Espani countryside with Qhora asaddle on her shoulders.

  Wayra. Home.

  “My lady.” Mirari touched her arm.

  Qhora looked up and saw three men across the street staring back at her. Staring. Not looking away. “These must be some of the less educated gentlemen Taziri warned us about. Come Turi, give us a scream. Sing your blood song for these men.” She held her gloved hand and the harpy eagle lifted his wide wings, flapped once, twice, and screamed. The cry reverberated down the street like a trumpet blast and a cymbal crash, like shattering glass and twisting steel. The men across the street winced and looked away. But one of them looked back at the women again.

  Mirari stepped forward and let her hatchet slip down into view in her gloved hand.

  The man looked away and the group moved on, muttering in low voices.

  Qhora sighed. “You see? A woman doesn’t need to fear anything in the world as long as she has a weapon, a friend, and her wits.”

  “Yes, my lady.”

  A few minutes later, Salvator emerged from the café with a weary smile. “I have a name. But it will have to wait for morning. May we retire now, Dona?”

  Qhora yawned. “Yes. Now, we can retire.”

  Chapter 9

  Curled up under the old tarp and her jacket, Taziri was mostly warm enough sleeping on the hard metal floor of the Halcyon’s cabin. Mostly.

  It’s not fair. It’s going to be roasting tomorrow. Why does it have to be freezing tonight?

  Taziri rolled over and had almost managed to get comfortable when she heard a soft scratching outside, and then the quiet clatter of a few small bits of gravel rolling over and tumbling down.

  Was that a footstep?

  She sat up and a moment later heard another soft clicking and clacking, so small and quiet that she could barely hear it and couldn’t tell at all where it was, or how far away. As silent as a shadow, she crept to the hatch and squinted through the small armored window. There was a dark rectangle that might have been the neighboring freight car, and a pale line that might have been a bit of a rail. Everything else was a dark gray muddle.

  The agonizingly soft crunch of gravel continued, as though a long snake were crawling across the rail yard, sliding its belly over the loose stones in a constant but quiet landslide.

  It’s getting closer.

  Taziri swallowed as she drew her revolver. She scanned the dark tomb of the cabin around her. There was no other way in or out of the Halcyon. But the skin of the plane wasn’t strong enough to fend off anything meaner than sleet. A bullet would punch straight through, she was sure.

  Unless I hide in the back where the wings are folded up around the cabin. The extra layers of the folded wings might protect me. For a minute or two.

  Then she heard a mournful meow. Taziri pressed her face to the window and squinted down. The shadows on the ground were rippling around the Halcyon, rolling and hunching. A tail whisked by.

  Cats? They’re cats. Taziri blinked. A lot of cats.

  She holstered her gun and quietly unlocked the hatch and swung it open. Just below her feet she saw a river of furry bodies marching past, their tails raised and flicking, their ears pricked, and their eyes flashing left and right in the starlight. A few of them looked up at the woman in the open hatch, but most did not.

  Taziri stood in silence, watching the cats parading past in a column four or five bodies wide. For three or four minutes, they sauntered by. And then the last one was gone and she listened to the cats calmly wandering across the gravel of the rail yard until she couldn’t hear them anymore.

  She shut the hatch and locked it. As she lay down on her tarp and jacket, she found herself just a bit warmer than before, and it was easier to relax on the hard cabin floor.

  Cats. A hundred homeless cats wandering through a rail yard. I didn’t expect that.

  Chapter 10

  Shit.

  T
aziri stared at the little girl and the little girl stared back at Taziri under the pale morning sky as a cool breeze whipped across the yard.

  Two minutes. I just needed two minutes. Just two minutes!

  Taziri half-crouched and half-leaned with her back against the side of the Halcyon and her feet spread out in front of her with her pants around her ankles. The early morning light filled the yard with a dusty yellow glare.

  The one time in my entire life that I try to go to the bathroom outside…the one time!

  The little girl must have been about eight or nine. She was short and thin, and her dark green dress hid her body in a flutter of loose cloth while a light green scarf clung to her black hair. She stood perfectly still except for her clothes, which flapped back and forth as the wind shifted around them. She had just run around the back of the Halcyon and froze there, staring.

  Why? Why are you here? Taziri thought as she pulled up her pants and got her clothes properly arranged.

  The back corner of the rail yard where she had hidden her machine and had tried to empty her bladder was a dead end, walled in on two sides by the crumbling window-less brick walls of two ancient storehouses. There was nowhere to go, no reason for anyone to be here. There were no flowers to pick, no lost toys to retrieve, no dog to chase. And yet the girl had come running into sight as though she was chasing something important enough.

  Or being chased by something scary enough.

  Taziri heard the light patter of running feet somewhere at the edge of the yard near the train station. The girl’s staring eyes grew wider and wilder. Her lip trembled.

  Damn it.

  Taziri lunged forward to grab the girl’s wrist and yanked her back to the open hatch. She lifted and shoved and threw the girl inside and leapt in behind her, and closed the hatch as quietly as she could. The girl lay on the floor, still staring. Taziri crouched by the hatch, her revolver in hand, waiting.

  Five young boys about the same age as the girl ran into view, glanced around the corner of the rail yard, and ran off again. Taziri exhaled and holstered her gun.